Making the Team: A Guide for Managers

The People: Who Is Ideally Suited to Do the Work?

What manager has not wrestled with the question of who to put on the team? As illogical as it may sound, many managers form their team without too much thought and subsequently, attempt to figure out how to capitalize upon and match up people's skills. A much better approach is to carefully think about the task in terms of the work to be done, and then choose people on the basis of their skills relevant to that work. For example, think back to the three basic purposes of teamwork described earlier: Tactical, problem-solving, and creative. Obviously, creative types are not as well suited for tactical teams as are highly organized, results-driven people, and vice versa.

As a manager faced with the ...